Educational Games Make Learning Fun

I enjoy a textbook, or PowerPoint presentation as much as the next guy, but lets face the facts. They have nothing on a game of classroom Jeopardy when it comes to reviewing for an upcoming quiz.

Students love to play games and many find competition motivating. Classroom games are not a replacement for direct instruction in the classroom, but they are a great way to review for a quiz, assess how well a group has understood your lesson, or to give students who struggle with memory extra practice in a small group.

Here is a list of some of my favorite games for the classroom:

WarPlay the card game war to review power systems in a social studies class (i.e."My knight beats your serf! Give me that card.")This game works well in a small group, so you can make it one of several stations and have groups rotate to different activities after ten or fifteen minutes.

White Board + Magnets = Epic Board GameThat giant white board is just begging to be turned into a giant board game. Then come up with a list of questions students have to answer to roll the dice, or spin the spinner. This takes almost no prep time, and can work as either a whole class review where students work collaboratively as a team, or as a station where small groups get to play as individuals.

Make a Dice GameThis is a good activity for students who need extra practice to commit information to memory. Find or make an over-sized die, and tape either pictures for students to identify, or questions to answer onto each face of the die. Then have students work in pairs or small groups to take turns rolling the die, being the score keeper, and being the game show host (checking if answers are correct on a teacher provided list). This is a great way to review for a matching quiz.

Connect FourProject a game of Connect Four onto your whiteboard, and divide the class into two teams. Alternate between the two teams asking big idea questions from the unit you are just finishing. Allow students from the other team to steal questions if the first team is unable to answer. Whichever student answers correctly gets to make the next move for their team, by marking the whiteboard. Each student on a team must play before anybody gets a second turn. You can cycle through questions more than once to motivate students to listen to their classmates responses.

Garbage BallThis game can be used as a section review similarly to Connect Four, but instead of having students mark the board after a correct answer give them the opportunity to do something you would never otherwise allow in your classroom. Let them toss a balled up piece of paper into your recycling bin.Put down a few strips of tape on the floor to establish a free throw, 2 point, and 3 point line. Make the free throw nearly impoissible to miss so that students who don't want to miss in front of the class can still make a point (They will often be the ones who win the game). There is no reasonable explanation for how much students enjoy this game. Prepare for a lot of fun.

Jeopardy and More PowerPoint Review GamesTo find out about Powerpoint Jeopardy and other Powerpoint review games go to: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/ppt-games/